Amplify meets community leaders

The leadership and staff with Amplify Cell Technologies treated community leaders with a “meet Amplify” luncheon, Friday, March 28 at the Marshall County Workforce Center.

The event, which included live musical entertainment, aerial videos of the plant site as it is being built out, and a video of the product and a automated manufacturing production line provided a virtual tour of how the battery manufacturing facility will operate.

Chief Executive Officer Ken Kearns, said the meeting was “the first step” in connecting with community leaders and partners.

He presented the current stage of growth of the project, the desire to meet local and state leaders, and introduced members of the Amplify team the community has not met, while guests enjoyed a meal catered by Marshall County's own Clancy's Cafe.

District 1 supervisor Charles Terry welcomed guests and praised the local team that helped attract the battery project, known as Project Poppy, to the Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park.

“We have a great team and would encourage everyone here. We are committed to the success of this project,” Terry said. “We are here to work together today and throughout the project.”

Some of the construction team were introduced – Tom Griffin, director of construction who will run the site after it is completed, Dave Morgan, project director with Turner and Townsend, and Alex Teague, site manager and vice-president of Yates Construction.

Morgan said there will be enough concrete in the project to build a side-walk from the plant to Detroit. Teague said he likes “getting paid to have fun.” “It truly takes an incredible team to build a project of this size,” Teague said. `We're literally moving mountains.”

Seventy thousand trucks will be used to haul raw materials to the site. Teague said safety comes first on the project.

Griffin said 40,000 pieces of steel and 300,000 bolts will be used to assemble the building.

Morgan said there have been zero injuries and zero quality defects in construction.

“We want to make sure people go home as they arrived. The goal is to have two million safe work hours at the site,” he said.

Kearns has 35 years in manufacturing, has lived in five countries, has led two startups and three greenfield sites in his career. He operated a site in India and in Tennessee, and spent 30 years with Ford Motor Company.

Jacqueline Jones, CHRO at Amplify, attended the University of Memphis and has a background in production and operations. She worked for Kraft Foods, earned a master's in human resources and worked with Memphis Light Gas and Water three years.

She joined the Amplify team six months ago.

She said she is most excited to be a part of a greenfield project and about the impact Amplify is going to make in the community.

When fully operational 2,000 individuals will be employed at the facility.

Phillipe Espinosa has worked with a tier one automotive industry and joined Paccar in 2018.

Mike Gallagher began his career in Meridian 33 years ago. He joined Amplify's team after working for another battery company in Clarksville, Tenn.

“I hope, over the next 10 to 20 years, the Lord lets me finish my career in Marshall County,” he said.

Working with procurement, he said, “We want to buy it where we build it, when possible.”

Jeremy Stewart, also worked in information technology in Meridian and has 25 years experience in IT.

Stewart said he wants to make Mississippi a place for IT people to want to come to work.

He worked 20 years for a trucking company in Alabama, and has served as IT director for a greenfield manufacturing facility. And he worked in IT with FedEx in Memphis.

(A "greenfield site" refers to an area of land that has never been developed or built upon before, offering a clean slate for new construction or development.)

Kearns, originally from Australia, has been involved in manufacturing startups in a number of countries. He provided an oversight of the manufacturing process and the team it will employ to manufacture the third generation electric batteries to be used in transportation fleets.

He said a battery pack, weighing up to as much as a ton, will go into large trucks. The pack will vary according to the vehicle but typically will be eight feet by five feet.

The range and size of the battery pack will be different for each type vehicle and have a different range before it has to be recharged.

"People look for a 300 to 400 mile range," Kearns said. "Our trucks are not typically long-haul trucks - the trucks return to the base. So, that type of range you can recharge at home base and you are not relying on recharging stations."

The LMFP batteries have a longer range than the current batteries on the market, he said.

Kearns said the goal of Amplify is to be the leading manufacturer of batteries for North America.

"Battery technology is advancing quickly," he said. "We will be producing the next generation of batteries for commercial vehicles."

The battery plant will be a 2.4 million-square-foot building, where raw materials enter at one end of the structure and finished cells come out the other end. By supplying batteries to multiple brands (makes of trucks), Kearns said Amplify has confidence it will have a demand for batteries.

EVE, a top three technology company in China, will assist in the design, construction and launching of the facility.

Jones said Amplify has grown to about 80 employees and expects to have 161 employed by the end of 2025, about 1,000 by the end of 2026 and 2,000 by the end of 2027.

She said the company offers outstanding benefits and entry level positions will start out at about $25 - $30 an hour.

Employees will be offered opportunities to go back to school.

"We work really hard but we have fun as well," she said.

Flexible work schedules will be offered. The company will draw from graduates from high schools, colleges, universities and technical schools.

Kearns said Amplify is beginning to work with local communities to make first contact.

"We will focus on multiple counties as we employ people," he said. "We are creating little clusters. This is just a start. It's been a great start. Let's continue this conversation."

He said he has never seen the level of engagement at any other place where he has worked.

"This is just the beginning," he said.

The meet and greet ended with a comment from Bill Scott, director with the Marshall County Industrial Development Authority.

"Welcome to God's country," he said. "This is the center of the universe."